


no longer do we wonder

by akaparalian



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Competency, F/F, HVAC Repair, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-28 18:46:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14455500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akaparalian/pseuds/akaparalian
Summary: Rose is really good at being a mechanic. Rey is not really good at being a Jedi -- well, maybe. It depends: is that no-relationships thing negotiable?





	no longer do we wonder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this, saiditallbefore!! I certainly enjoyed writing it. These two are just *clenches fist* _so cute._ And any day where I get to tag a fic with "HVAC Repair" is a glorious day indeed.
> 
> MTFBWY!
> 
> (Oh -- title is from 'January Wedding,' by the Avett Brothers, AKA literally the only song on my Rey/Rose playlist. Look, that thing is a work in progress, OK?)

“Do you want some help with that?” 

Rose immediately bolted straight upright, hitting her head  _ hard _ on a support beam on the way up. Rey winced sympathetically; she hadn’t meant to cause damage or alarm. It was just… well, when she saw  _ anyone _ buried waist-deep in the guts of the  _ Falcon _ , she wanted to know what they were up to and see if she could help, and all the more so when it was Finn’s… friend.

Perhaps more-than-friend? That sort of thing was well outside her wheelhouse.  _ This _ , on the other hand, was not: now that Rose was sprawled across the corridor, rubbing her head and groaning, Rey could see she’d been fussing with some pipes related to the heating system.

“Been a bit nippy lately, hasn’t it?” she tried again, even as she reached down a hand to help Rose up, adding, “Are you OK?” because it seemed cruel not to ask, and because she was genuinely worried; that had been a pretty solid knock to the head, and she was sure Rose was still recovering from what had happened on Crait. 

“Fine!” was the somewhat squeaky reply, but there were firm, calloused fingers grasping her hand, and Rose hauled herself up all right, so Rey chose to believe her words rather than her tone. Upon righting herself, though, it seemed Rose couldn’t do a whole lot else than stare at her.

Rey smiled, unsure. This wasn’t the first time they’d met, of course, but… it was the first time they’d been together without Finn as a very enthusiastic buffer, and this whole entire-Resistance-crammed-into-the- _ Falcon _ thing was all still very new, besides. She wasn’t quite sure what to say, what to do; she didn’t even know what had compelled her to come over and investigate, beyond general interest. She knew there was  _ something _ — she could feel it roiling in her gut — she just didn’t know what it was, yet.

She wondered in passing if it were a Jedi thing. Probably not, but one never knew with these things.

“Um — did you find the problem with the heating?” she asked, because that seemed like a safe thing to ask. They were both, she knew, familiar with the topic; Rose was a mechanic, which Finn had mentioned about a dozen times when he introduced them, always pointedly including the fact that Rey herself was pretty handy, and Rose, did you know Rey used to scavenge Star Destroyers, and Rey, did you know that Rose very nearly succeeded in sabotaging one? He was clearly trying very hard to get them to like each other, which was sort of sweet, but didn’t require nearly as much effort as he seemed to think it did. Rey thought that she was doing a pretty bang-up job of liking Rose all on her own, to be honest.

The technical question appeared to have done the trick, at least a little bit. Rose’s face had been beet-red, but now the color was clearing, and she was nodding and smiling, wiping absently at some grease that was smudged across her cheek.

“Yes!” she said triumphantly. “It’s just a little issue with the condenser coil. I don’t think it’ll be a hard fix, despite how annoying it’s been.” Her voice was steady, not squeaky at all, and Rey thought she understood: it was easy to forget to be nervous when you were talking about something you were very good at. And Rose, as Finn had been trying to hard to impress upon her, was  _ very  _ good at what she did.

“Mind if I stick around and watch? I’d repeat the offer to help, but I doubt you need it, actually,” Rey said lightly, and oh, that brought the flush back to Rose’s cheeks again. The red color in her round face, combined with the way her hair curled softly around to frame it, was… well, it was interesting. Very nice. And interesting.

Huh. Probably not a Jedi thing after all, then.

Still, Rose nodded, and the two of them got down on the floor together and crawled half-into the wall of the  _ Falcon _ , and after a brief moment where Rose’s hands were shaky on her tools and she glanced over at Rey with something like apprehension, she seemed to settle down into her task with great determination.

It  _ was _ an easy fix, but it probably wouldn’t have been for most mechanics; Rose was a master, and it was incredibly fun for Rey to watch. Her own skills were almost entirely self-taught, and she wondered if that was true for Rose, too, or if she’d had some training from the Resistance. Probably a bit of both, if she had to guess. She’d have to ask sometime, when she wasn’t so busy being blown away by the deft little tweaks Rose was making, the ease and efficiency of her actions disguising how effective they were. In just minutes, the heating system had gone from rumbling ominously to purring happily, and the temperature was already starting to rise by the time the two of them were crawling back out into the hallway.

“That was incredible!” Rey enthused, and this time she did it on purpose, because she  _ wanted _ to watch Rose blush. Oh, nope. Definitely not a Jedi thing. She was pretty sure  _ celibacy _ was a Jedi thing, actually — at least according to the sacred texts she’d nicked from Master Luke — but then, when so far had she ever been a classical Jedi? Surely the rules were all changing a bit these days.

And anyway, Rose had Finn. Probably. Maybe? She didn’t know.

Regardless, Rose  _ was _ blushing — as red as her namesake. And it was… well, it was  _ cute _ . The cuteness and the intense technical competency were a killer combo, setting a little bit of a fire in Rey’s head, actually.

“Th-thanks,” Rose said, and her voice was remarkably more even than before, despite that one little stutter, and despite the fact that her cheeks were all but aflame. And then she added bravely, “You should see what I can do with a sublight engine.”

“I’d love to,” Rey said very seriously, and Rose rewarded her with a warm smile.

“Well, I’d love to, too.”

But something about the way she said it — the way her voice dipped suddenly into shyness again, at the end of her sentence, as she cast her gaze back down to the floor — and the way there was still a smudge of grease on her cheek, and the way she was fidgeting with a wrench in one hand… Something about all of it gave Rey pause. She bit her lip.

“I, erm — I wouldn’t want to take too much of your time though,” she said. “I mean, I’m sure you want to spend most of your time with Finn.”

It didn’t really have the intended effect, though, Rey had to admit, she wasn’t quite sure what the intended effect had  _ been _ . Regardless, Rose mostly looked confused, and met her eyes again.

“I spend plenty of time with Finn,” she said dubiously. “But I’m not sure why that matters? Besides, he’s great, but he doesn’t really have an eye for…” She gestured with a wrench towards the wall, behind which hummed the heating system that was now chugging along smoothly.

Oh, Force. (Was that sacrilegious? If Jedi weren’t meant to have… er, relationships, then was invoking the Force in a situation like this at all appropriate? She wasn’t sure the sacred texts would have anything at all to say on the subject. It seemed a tad specific.)

“Well, I mean, I just thought…” Now Rey was the one whose voice was squeaky, who couldn’t quite meet Rose’s eyes.  _ Some brave, noble Jedi I am _ , she thought a bit sourly. 

But Rose was smiling at her — grinning, really, with good humor, and still blushing. ‘Still blushing’ seemed like a good sign, as did the fact that she took a half-step forward, just close enough that they were distinctly in one another’s personal space, without being too close for comfort. 

“Rey,” she said. “I wouldn’t be asking to, uh, spend time with you if I didn’t mean it. Okay?”

There was a lot there that probably needed unpacking — Rey still wasn’t sure that she was up to speed on whatever was going on here, interpersonal relationships-wise; maybe the shipwide gossip about Finn and Rose wasn’t to be believed? Maybe  _ she’d _ just misunderstood, and this was just another odd way that she was paying the price for having grown up with no one but Unkar Plutt to teach her how beings interacted with one another? Maybe she was misunderstanding the double meaning of 'spent time with you,' or maybe there wasn't a double meaning at all, though something about Rose (her voice, her countenance) made her think that she was right about that part, at least. Regardless: there was clearly a piece here that she wasn't quite willing to believe, not yet. She wanted more information, a better understanding of why her heart was thundering under her skin and why she wanted nothing more than for Rose to take another step closer, and another, until there was no space left between them at all.

All of that would take time. But — Rey glanced around them, at the empty hallway of the  _ Falcon _ , and thought of Poe and Chewie in the cockpit, Finn probably hanging around the dejarik table that Leia had claimed as her command center, the Resistance smaller than ever and all alone out here in the cold reaches of space, with nothing but each other to hold on to — well, time was something that wasn’t exactly in short supply at the moment.

And in the meantime…

“Okay,” Rey said, and had to take a deep, steadying breath at the dazzling smile Rose granted her in return. 

“Good.” She sounded satisfied, and Rey couldn’t help it: a small, happy laugh bubbled up out of her ribs, and  _ she _ was the one who took another step forward, as though buoyed by it, or as though the action was pushing her forward, an equal and opposite reaction.

Well — Force. There wasn’t much for it now, was there? She met Rose’s eyes with a slow, spreading smile.

“When can we start?” 


End file.
